UNC Football: Confidence finally takes a hit in this week’s FanPulse survey

Welcome to SB Nation FanPulse, a survey of fans across college sports. Each week during the college sports season, we will send out polls to plug in fans to each team. Tar Heel fans can sign up HERE to join FanPulse.

Week 3 of college football was another one of those “What did we do to deserve this?” weekends where there was a lot of unsavory things that happened, but also there was also plenty of moments that I was happy to experience. While Carolina lost their game against App State, there was plenty of other excitement to take in.

Unfortunately, not a lot of the excitement went in the ACC’s favor, though there is a couple of teams that we will discuss in just a moment. Right now, it’s time to debut SB Nation’s FanPulse Top 25:

Before diving into too much ACC talk, let’s talk first about the major slide that Michigan has taken. In SB Nation’s poll, Michigan ranked 6th in the country this preseason. Since then they have only lost one game, but were dangerously close to being 1-2 after going into overtime with Army. The loss against Wisconsin isn’t the most shocking thing in the world, but it goes to show that maybe they were ranked a little too high out of the gate all the same. Cheer up, Jim Harbaugh, at least you have that NFC championship ring if things never get going.

Another slide in the polls worth at least noting because of who they lost to is UCF. They suffered a one-point loss to Pitt, who has now improved their record to 2-2 after having taken SBN’s #12 Penn State the distance in their showdown in University Park. Their other loss was to Virginia, who comes in at #24 on our list for the week after slowly but surely beating Old Dominion. After falling behind 17-0, the Cavs shut ODU down the rest of the way, further improving their undefeated record.

Now here’s the not-so-fun part. UNC lost once again, this time to Appalachian State at home. As a result of losing two in a row, the 100% confidence that fans have had the last three weeks has finally taken a hit. Take a look.

While it’s not the biggest drop, the 75% confidence rating shows that fans are feeling the effects of everything that’s been happening. The team’s inability to execute for four quarters is likely a big part of it, but also the injuries to crucial positions have made things a bit more difficult for the Heels than they really should be. There likely isn’t any reason to hang up the football jerseys for the season, as we haven’t even gotten into the meat and potatoes of the Coastal division games (and it’s worth pointing out that we are 1-0 against divisional opponents). However, Carolina does need to find a way to keep things from completely unraveling, and maybe one way to do that is by putting up a good fight against the best team in the country this weekend.

What do you think of this week’s poll, and also this week’s confidence meter for UNC fans? Have the two recent losses rocked your confidence, or do you still standing firmly by Mack Brown’s squad? Please let us know in the comments below, and remember that you can also be heard once a week by signing up for FanPulse using the link above. Be loud, be proud, and Go Heels!